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Just clarifying that he is no relation to me.

I've always wondered, Neil, how closely you were related to the candy bars.

I didn't read the comments, but I noticed the same thing when I read through the article.

Ed: Apparently Bob Allen, knew or knows only what he saw from the Wilson Times, possibly on a news service feed.

... neither does training.

Agree with you on that. We have polity. What can be done under it is the question.

1) In the kind of congregationalism I have mostly been in, the clergy are supposed to be accountable to the congregation (or to its delegates, whether they are called a board of elders or a diaconate or (as at Fremont) the church council), but all too often this supervision falls into a practice no more successful than the monarchical episcopalianism of the RCC.

2) Ed, what (beyond keeping them out of ministry) do you have in mind? Keeping them out of the church altogether? The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. "Such were some of you," says Paul. Or are you talking about something outside the church's jurisdiction?

The relevant question is: should a convicted or confessed child sex abuser be considered disqualified from ministry positions. The SBC has broadly answered "yes" to this. A few churches are starting to be excluded on this basis.